Hey all, I'm looking for a software program that will scour my network for computers, inventory them for their software and hardware configurations, and alert me if anything is added in or removed. I'd prefer something that runs on Linux, and I've taken a quick look at Open-Audit and OTRS, but I've had several people recommend Spiceworks. I know it doesn't run on Linux but I've heard that it's quite powerful and can run on a low-powered box. And that it even has a ticketing system too. Should I go with one of these three or is there something else out there that will work for me. I work for a non-profit, have about 120 users, and about 50 workstations and five servers. Any ideas? Suggestions? Recommendations?

Thanks,

Joe B

If you don't mind paying for codeweavers support, then it is possible to run Spiceworks in a Linux environment

https://www.codeweavers.com/compatib...e/?app_id=3530

Icinga (a Nagios fork), is a flexible open source monitoring system, for which a good number of plugins are available, and with a bit of Perl knowledge, it is possible to write your own

https://www.monitoring-plugins.org/

Software and hardware auditing might prove to be a bit more of a challenge, though it should be possible to pull installed software and hardware info via a script if necessary.

Hi ferrari, fwiw I'm using Nagios for monitoring and alerting. What I need is a way to pull software and hardware inventories out of workstations and set a baseline. Then I need an alert when someone brings a program from home and installs it on their workstation (<-- I thought my users were above this). Or plugs in something that they shouldn't. I've heard that Spiceworks can do that pretty much just by running the program.

Thanks,

Joe B

The wireless broadband company I work for uses the same, so it's all I've known, but from what I've been reading about Icinga (a Nagios fork/rewrite), it is superior, and writing plugins is supposed to be easier. I imagine that the Icinga community could assist here if required, since it would be a useful plugin to monitor hardware at least.

I'm not aware of any Linux monitoring software that could fulfil this requirement. Are we just talking about Linux machines here? Are they installing this software as root? (I hope not!) Or just in their home directories? Downloaded software would normally require root credentials to install anyway. Maybe if you expanded on this a little, others could suggest ways to prevent this in the first place.

Well, that's why I mentioned that codeweavers apparently supports Spiceworks. I haven't had experience with using it though. I just assumed that since it had the capabilities you wanted, it might be the better option.

Hey ferrari,

1) I've heard some good things about Icinga too. Nagios is working well for me at this time so I'm hesitant to fix something that isn't really broken yet. But then again, I'm starting to consider it.
2) I'm the only Linux user in this business; the rest of the workstations are Windows 7.
3) Some of the programs that are purchased here require administrative rights for them to work correctly. I've contacted vendor support and they just design their software that way. I don't think any of them have listened to me when I've told them it's a security risk for me.
4) At this time, and for the foreseeable future, I don't have the time to dedicate to working on the implementation and familiarization for a new program (my co-worker recently left the company so now I'm doing two jobs). Thanks but I just downloaded Spiceworks to give it a try.

Thanks for the information, and I'll hang on to the note about codeweavers for future reference.

Thanks again,

Joe B

I don't see how "6 million IT pros" are u$ing it if they do what the "IT pros" are supposed to do? http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...os-4175530810/

http://man7.org/linux/man-pages/man7/inotify.7.html

Hi jamison20000e, Thanks for the tip on inotify. I'll check into that.

Thanks,

Joe B

The Spicewworks agent does look promising

http://community.spiceworks.com/help/Spiceworks_Agent

and in your position, I think it offers the most optimal solution, with least effort involved.

The inotify utility pertains to Linux environments, but I do note that there is a port for inotify for windows: inotify-win, and there are other similar tools available for Windows environments if one cares to search.

The following may be of interest to you too

http://www.brownfort.com/2014/09/mon...g-file-events/

Thanks ferrari.

I see this is unsolved. We went with Spiceworks.

Thanks,

Joe B